The world would recognise an indy Scotland not sanctioned by England

The whole construct of the British establishment was designed to ensure that the aristocracy, landowners and wealthy elites remain the rulers of the UK. The purpose of the sheltering rule which inhibits liars being made accountable is there to protect “honourable gentlemen” having to justify being “economical with the actualité”. I applaud Dawn Butler’s robust denunciation of Johnson’s serial antithesis of the truth, and like other readers castigate opposition members for not supporting her.

The House of Lords will never be abolished, as apart from being the exclusive reward for has-beens and generous party donors, it is another bulwark against the people ever gaining true power. The only parties which resist the attractions of this sinecure for life are Sinn Fein and the SNP.

Talking about Sinn Fein, from the early years of the last century elected candidates have never taken their seat in the House of Commons, partly as they do not wish to swear allegiance to the monarch of the occupying forces in their country as they see it. Sinn Fein MPs still look after their constituents’ interests, but they are not paid a salary by the British state. It may have taken a long time but their tenacious stance may soon deliver their aim of a united Ireland. As other readers have pointed out, SNP MPs seem to be in Westminster simply as punch-bags for Tory insults. Why not follow Sinn Fein’s example?

So tell me, why not UDI? Because the world would not recognise an independent Scotland not sanctioned by England? Not so. Just look at the member countries of the EU which have fought their way to freedom. The Irish Republic was one of the first later joined by Croatia, Slovenia, Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia. All countries which grasped their independence and were recognised by not just the EU, but the whole world. Sure, building a new nation is an onerous undertaking, but all these countries did it and Scotland is blessed with talented people, abundant assets and great wealth. As many European politicians have stated, an independent Scotland would be welcomed back into the EU family without hesitation.

So I urge the SNP to do some overt planning for independence; the virus is not an impediment to that as the venal Tory government has shown. Of course, dealing with Covid 19 is a priority (as is combating the climate crisis) but not to the exclusion of the SNP’s raison d’etre.
Richard Walthew
Duns

THE Covid-19 pandemic has affected all of us in different ways, from the way we work to how we socialise. It has brought home to us the people and places that are important in our lives, and forced us to rethink how we will live our future.

As the country begins to unlock, we all recognise that the world has shifted slightly on its axis.

The new normal won’t ever be quite the same as the old normal. For a start, the isolation that the pandemic brought has forever changed how we buy things, and modern technology allows us to work from home for more of the time.

But while lockdown has taken its toll on us, separating us from friends and family, it has also had an impact on some vulnerable Muslims who have sought refuge in their religion – but instead found the propaganda of hate.

Sadly, but perhaps not surprisingly, Islamist extremists have used Covid-19 as a recruiting sergeant.

According to a recent report from Europol, the EU’s law enforcement agency, mental health is an important issue in relation to terrorism and violent extremism.

It believes that, in addition to already-radicalised Islamists, Covid-19 will have been another stress factor for potentially vulnerable individuals.

Europol notes that, in 2020, there were 57 completed, failed and foiled terrorist attacks in the European Union, all committed by lone wolf perpetrators. These were in Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Italy and Spain.

Searching online, extremists do seem to have become more active during the pandemic, taking advantage of lockdowns and isolation to influence receptive minds. There’s little doubt that we are seeing increased effort by extremists to assert a radical version of Muslim identity and support extremist organisations such as Isis.

Last year in the EU, terrorist attacks killed 21 people and 450 people were arrested on suspicion of terrorism-related offences.

Some of those Islamist attacks were motivated by, for example, the republication of Prophet Muhammad cartoons, and in response to growing Islamophobia.

Another contributing factor will be the recent EU court ruling on religious dress and its perceived targeting of Muslim women, which has already been condemned by many Muslim leaders.

Europol also says that the Covid-19 pandemic has contributed to right and left-wing extremism, and last year also saw left-wing anarchist attacks, particularly in Italy which saw 24 such incidents.

The fact is that there are some Muslim individuals and groups who are using the Covid-19 pandemic to radicalise isolated and vulnerable people, and Muslim leaders nationally and locally must do more to counter this agenda of hate and division.

I strongy believe that much more should be done within Muslim communities to identify people who may have been badly affected by isolation during the pandemic, and whose patterns of behaviour may have changed.

The mental health impact of the pandemic has left some people susceptible to radicalisation and, as Muslims, we must do everything we can to confront, refute and oppose all forms of extremism – and to identify and help those who may have been influenced.

What some misguided Muslims believe and what the Quran actually says are two different things.

The Quran only speaks of tolerance and inclusion, never of violence, and we need those peaceful and powerful messages to be heard loud and clear, now more than ever.
Paigham Mustafa
via email

I WAS thinking along similar lines to Andy Anderson (Letters, July 28) about challenging the veracity of what Johnson says at the despatch box.

READ MORE: Here’s what SNP MPs could do to force change of the Westminster rules

I’m not sure of the procedure but perhaps he can be asked to correct the record of what he previously said as, for example, the figures he stated have been proven to be incorrect, and would he care to explain how he came by those figures.

This could be repeated for many different examples of his mendacity.
Andy Pearson
Edinburgh

THE attitudes diarised by The Jouker (July 27) aren’t just anti-Gaelic and anti-Scottish. They’re anti-British too, because they reveal just what a fraud “one Britain” is.

READ MORE: Gaelic speakers on the bus made my son feel unwelcome, Unionist claims

“Britain” makes everything in this island equally “British”, we hear. So why are they rejecting and even trying to criminalise our part of “Britishness? If what makes Scotland doesn’t belong in Britain, what is Britain doing in Scotland? Trying to destroy it, it seems, continuing Edward I’s war by “peaceful” means. He wanted Gaelic gone, too.

The anti-Gaelic/Scotland brigade seem to be people who can only see themselves. If there are The Other, there shouldn’t be. That good Conservative MP Enoch Powell summed it up: “The English cannot tolerate the existence of any other culture, whether at home or abroad”. Which means, of course, that there is something wrong with the existence of those other cultures and peoples, not that there’s something severely wrong psychologically with the English, who have a right and duty to correct the moral abnormality of those others’ existence.

One symptom of that is interpreting the Other only as an aspect of themselves, and the Others’ rights, and their upholding, as only anti-English wrong. The mother who saw people speaking Gaelic only as a way of making her son (sympathy card, clever) feel “unwelcome” ought to try speaking Scots, not just Gaelic, in any purely English-speaking situation ( anywhere there’s where there’s even the slightest power, including in so-called Christian churches), then she’ll know what being unwelcome is.

Another trick is to call speaking Gaelic nearby “rude”, because the objector can’t understand it. This is actually the height of arrogant hostility. The answer should be, “We weren’t talking to you,” or “move somewhere you won’t hear us, then.” I note it isn’t rude to speak English, loudly, all over Gaels who are trying to speak their own language, or to force English on people in the guise of “friendship”.

At the end of the day, though, the English know they’re welcome to Scotland. To all of it, if they like.
Ian McQueen
Dumfries

I ENJOYED the Jouker’s piece about the British Unionist’s comment about the Gaelic speakers on the bus.

It reminded me of a similar example of disrespectful ignorance when my mother-in-law, wife and I were on a bus trip to Llanberis in North Wales.

In the evening a group of us were in the bar of the hotel having a social drink. There were two male locals at the bar speaking in their Celtic language.

A woman (she was English) in our company, hearing them, suddenly in a loud voice said: “Bloody ignorant Welsh, can’t even speak English.”

In response to this offensive remark, I said: “They don’t call themselves Welsh here. They call themselves Cymry.” This was followed by her blank, confused face and a “what?”

The two locals who were within earshot of hearing it gave appreciative smiles. My wife and I then left the company, not wishing to be associated with such a disrespectful individual.

I don’t personally speak Scottish Gaelic, understanding only the meaning of some words, but the two now adult grandchildren (male and female) of my eldest son attended the Glasgow Gaelic School’s primary and secondary. My son’s belief was that they should learn the original language of their country.
Bobby Brennan
Glasgow

WITH Gaelic very much in the news at present, as a non Gaelic speaking Central belt Scot, I love seeing names and places around Scotland written in Gaelic.

It’s absolutely fascinating, but at the same time, given the complexities of Gaelic pronunciation, it still seems inaccessible.

I wonder therefore, if, perhaps in the more public spaces like train platforms etc, it might also be worth including the phonetic pronunciation too. I believe that such passive access just might result in more people having the confidence to start engaging with this lovely language, and who knows, perhaps even politicians might learn how to pronounce their own party’s name!
I Easton
Glasgow

THE correspondence on the mysteries of spelling and pronunciation of Gaelic doesn’t give us balance when we make a comparison with English (Charlie Kerr, July 24, etc) . A reasonable guess is that there are more people in the world trying to learn English than Gaelic. The renowned Anon had this advice for them:

I take it you already know
Of tough and bough and cough and dough
Others may stumble, but not you
On hiccough, thorough, laugh, and through.
And cork and work and card and ward
And font and front and word and sword
Well done! And now if you wish, perhaps
To learn of less familiar traps.

Beware of heard, a dreadful word
That looks like beard and sounds like bird.
And dead: it’s said like bed, not bead –
For goodness sakes don’t call it deed.
Watch out for meat and great and threat,
They rhyme with suite and straight and debt.
A moth is not a moth in mother,
Nor both in bother, broth in brother.

And here is not a match for there,
And dear and fear for bear and pear.
And then there’s dose and rose and lose –
Just look them up–and goose and choose,
And do and go, then thwart and cart
Come, come, I’ve hardly made a start!
dreadful language? Man alive
I’d mastered it when I was five.
Sandy Carmichael
Cromdale